Minority Affair’s Budget Increased by Over 87 Crores for 2016-17

For 2016-17, the Ministry of Minority Affairs has
prioritized its focus areas in tune with the National priority for educational
and economic empowerment through Skill Development.Dr. Najma Heptulla, the
Union Minister for Minority Affairs said that almost the 50% of the Budget of
would go for educational empowerment of minorities being a critical need for
their development. Further, the Ministry has made provisions to make Maulana
Azad National Fellowship demand driven subject to eligibility.

She
was briefing media persons about the budget allocation for the Ministry of of
Minority Affairs here last evening. The Minister said the Central Government
has again increased the Budgetary Outlay in respect of Ministry of Minority
Affairs from Rs. 3712.78 Crore in 2015-16 to Rs. 3800 Crore for 2016-17. The
increase is of about Rs. 87 Crore for 2016-17.

She
said in addition to
these Rs. 3800 Crore the Central Government also channelizes minimum 15%
financial resources and physical targets from other flagship schemes of various
Ministries/Departments under Prime Minister‘s New 15 Point Programme for
welfare & development of Minorities namely, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan,
National Rural Livelihood Mission, National Urban Livelihood Mission, National
Rural Drinking Water Programme, Integrated Child Development Scheme etc. Under
these schemes, the flow of funds would go beyond Rs. 10,000 Crore for
minorities. In addition, under Priority Sector Lending, the flow of funds for
loans to minorities has reached to the level of Rs. 2,76,000 Crore.

The
other issues highlighted by the Minister are-

She
said Central Government is committed to development of minorities in the
Country under the guiding principle of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas”.
Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India, has adopted a multi-pronged
strategy for development of minority communities with focus on educational
empowerment; economic empowerment; infrastructure development; fulfilling
special needs; and strengthening of minority institutions. The welfare and
development schemes of the Ministry focus on poor and deprived sections of the
minorities.

During 2016-17, the Ministry aims to disburse scholarships to about 90
lakh minority students through National Scholarship Portal (NSP) in Direct Benefit
Transfer (DBT) mode in their bank accounts.

In conformity with Government’s priority for “Skill India” and “Make in
India” and to improve the workers’ participation rate of minorities in the
economy of the country, the outlay for Skill Development of minorities have
been enhanced from Rs. 209.45 Crore in 2015-16 to Rs. 385 Crore for 2016-17,
which includes allocation of Rs. 155 Crore to the new scheme of “Nai Manzil”,
an integrated educational and livelihood initiative. For Skill Development,
Ministry has started new programmes namely, USTTAD and Nai Manzil in 2015-16.
The Ministry also established a special purpose vehicle called Maulana Azad
National Academy for Skills (MANAS) in 2014-15 to address all skill
development needs of minority communities and establish linkages with
concessional credit to Skill Development to provide sustainable livelihood to
Minority Communities with primary focus on self-employment and
entrepreneurship. The skill development initiative for minorities “Seekho aur
Kamao (Learn & Earn)”, has been strengthened and expanded. Ministry aims to
train about 1,40,000 minority youths under these schemes in 2016-17.

The new scheme ‘Nai Manzil’ which was launched
on 8th August, 2015, will benefit the minority youths who do not
have a formal school leaving certificate, i.e., those in the category of
school-dropouts or educated in the community education institutions like the Madarsas,
with a view to enabling them to seek better employment in the organized sector
and thus to equip them for better lives. This scheme will open a gateway of
opportunities for Madarsa students as well. The scheme has been approved
with the cost of Rs. 650 Crore (US$ 100 million) for five years. 50% funding
has to come from the World Bank. The World Bank has approved the funding of US$
50 million. This is for the first time that World Bank has come forward to
support a programme for welfare of minority communities in India. For 2016-17,
Rs. 155 Crore have been allocated for the training of 25,000 minority youths
under the scheme.

Another new ambitious initiative of the Government, “USTTAD
(Upgrading the Skills and Training in Traditional Arts/ Crafts for
Development)” was launched on 14th May, 2015 at Varanasi (U.P.). The
scheme aims at capacity building and updating the traditional skills of master
craftsmen and artisans. The scheme will also set standards for traditional
skills. The trained master craftsmen/artisan will train the minority youths in
various specific traditional arts/crafts. Ministry has signed a MoU with an
E-commerce portal shopclues.com for facilitating the market linkages of crafts.
Ministry has engaged National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), National
Institute of Design (NID) and Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP) to work in
various clusters for design intervention; product range development; packaging;
exhibitions, fashion shows and publicity; tying up with e-marketing portals to
enhance sales; and brand building. During 2016-17, work will start in 32
clusters associated with traditional arts and crafts of minorities.

Further, about 30% of the Budget would go for “Jan Vikas Karyakram”
under Multi-sectoral Development Programme (MsDP) to meet the infrastructural
requirements in minority concentration areas. It is an area development
programme. It will be made more effective and focused on the targeted
minorities, by analyzing the latest census data of 2011. The focus would shift
from smaller projects to big projects in order to create infrastructure for
students, working women, polytechnics etc.

Another unique initiative of the present Government “Hamari Dharohar”
launched in 2014-15 would take up more programmes for preservation of rich
heritage and culture of minorities.

In 2016-17, the minority women trained under women empowerment programme
of “Nai Roshni”, would be linked with skill development and
entrepreneurship development programmes of the Ministry, to make them
economically empowered.

National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC)
provides concessional loans for self-employment and income generating ventures
for the socio-economic development of the ‘backward sections’ amongst the
notified minorities. For the first time in the history of NMDFC, the present
Government has increased the Authorized Share Capital of NMDFC by double i.e.
from Rs. 1500 crore to Rs. 3000 crore in 2015. Thereafter, Ministry contributed
Rs. 150 Crore to the equity of NMDFC and also earmarked Rs. 140 Crore for
2016-17. This has helped NMDFC to leverage more funds to extend concessional
loans for minority communities for self-employment.

Ministry is making its all efforts to introduce the Bill on Eviction of
Unauthorized Occupants from Waqf properties in the Parliament during Budget
Session.

The subject of ‘Haj’ is being transferred from Ministry of External Affairs
to Ministry of Minority Affairs.